Sunday, 12 May 2013

You Gotta Roll With It

And so we began to build....

What started as a
kitchen and ground floor revamp, soon became the whole house - well if you're goanna
do it, just get the hell on and do it I say. (I've never actually said and I
don't usually sound like an old man from New York but you see what I'm getting
at).

Many important
decisions to be made, much sourcing to do, many fags to be smoked (again, the
builders not me).

My natural
inclination to mix reclaimed with new, junkyard bargains with statement
investment pieces was a shared vision with my lovely clients. So I set too...
trawling the internet, junk shops, the streets (the actual streets) by way of
artisan makers and the odd concept design store (a refreshing treat) to bring
the house back together piece by piece.

Whilst I stand by
this technique whole-heartedly, for both aesthetic and ethical reasons, do not
be fooled into thinking it's an easy option. It isn't.. it is long, arduous and
painstakingly laborious, but, but my friends well worth the effort. Apart from
anything else, I'm Northern and we Northerners love a bargain and a spot of
make do and mend!

Make no mistake,
it's getting harder, we're all at it and prices have rocketed, but with enough
digging it's still possible to snap up a gem. Cut to a weekend in March,
dilapidated village hall in the rough side of Burnley (that's the North), a
literal blizzard is raging outside but what they lack in heating they make up
in fabric. Rolls and rolls of the stuff piled from floor to ceiling, all
abandoned off-cuts from high-end producers, now packed in tighter than
proverbial sardines in a can. It's nigh on impossible to actually see the stuff
without brute like strength to free a roll from its squished up neighbours. But
with patience, sweat inducing effort and a spot of sweet talking the perma-tanned
shop assistant, Karl, it is a veritable treasure trove of quality fabric at
bargain prices ranging from 50p - £5 a meter for the very top end stuff! Now,
that, folks, is how I roll.

So it was....
piece by cast-off piece, a home began to emerge from the rubble.